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From the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.

Tubular Bells

Mike Oldfield

1973

Buy At Rough Trade
Tubular Bells
Album Summary

Tubular Bells is the debut studio album by English musician Mike Oldfield, released on 25 May 1973 as the first album on Virgin Records. Oldfield, who was 19 years old when it was recorded, played almost all the instruments on the mostly instrumental album. The album initially sold slowly, but gained worldwide attention in December 1973 when its opening theme was used for the soundtrack to the horror film The Exorcist. This led to a surge in sales which increased Oldfield's profile and played an important part in the growth of the Virgin Group. It stayed in the top ten of the UK Albums Chart for one year from March 1974, during which it reached number one for one week. It peaked at number three on the US Billboard 200, and reached the top position in Canada and Australia. The album has sold over 2.7 million copies in the UK and an estimated 15 million worldwide. An orchestral version produced by David Bedford was released in 1975 as The Orchestral Tubular Bells. Oldfield has recorded three sequels: Tubular Bells II (1992), Tubular Bells III (1998), and The Millennium Bell (1999). For the album's 30th anniversary Oldfield re-recorded the album as Tubular Bells 2003. A remastered edition was released in 2009. Its contribution to British music was recognised when Oldfield played extracts during the 2012 Summer Olympics opening ceremony in London.

Wikipedia

Rating

3.13

Votes

10860
Genres
Rock

Reviews

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Sat May 15 2021
1

I had an ex who considered this the pinnacle of musical achievement. He turned out to be about as tedious as this album is. I get why it's on the list, it was sort of groundbreaking in its day. I just never got it, it rouses nothing in me. I hear a bunch of boring musical wankery, and just want to yawn and push it aside.

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Tue Aug 03 2021
2

"Thanks for the recording, Mike. Great tune. Love those bells! We can really do something with them... Oh sure, the whistles are cute, too... Uh-huh, and the guitar at 14 minutes... Yep, the jig at the end was, er, also amusing... Nice stuff. Sure. I'm just saying that as far as quote unquote songs, it's obvious those first four minutes do the heavy lifting, so we should run with those. Maybe work in a few of the other bits. That'll shave off a cool forty-four minutes or so. Then we'll be sitting pre... Sorry, say that again... Oh. Really? All of it?... I see... Uh-huh... I see... Mike, that's *very* long. I'm not sure peope will be able to tolerate it once the main bit is over so early... Mike?... Mike?... Shit."

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Wed Jan 06 2021
5

Stunning. A prefect work of art. The man was 19 when he composed the album and it took him 6 months. An absolute masterpiece

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Tue Mar 09 2021
4

When the drums kick in during Bells pt. 2 and that guy starts grunt-singing and howling in whatever language that was… I finally had my first genuine WTF moment with this entire list. And I liked it! This album really runs the gamut of the ridiculous and the sublime, and the whole time I kept thinking of A) The Exorcist B) that Oldfield should make a record with Tortoise and C) that Oldfield should make a record with Mike Patton. All enjoyable thoughts in my book.

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Tue Jan 26 2021
1

At its best, it reminds me of things I would rather be listening to; at its worst, it reminds me how bad of a decision it was to listen to this instead of those other things. Maybe Oldfield didn't understand that announcing instruments doesn't make the theme they're riffing on sound any better, it only makes me regret that I have to listen to another round of it before I can finally finish the album. I only two things notable: the sequence in Tubular Bells Pt. II with the grunted vocals and the fact that a child-rapist used the first minute as a theme for his movie about demon possession. The former only happened because Oldfield got himself drunk enough to accidentally do something interesting. The latter's what brought us here, listening to an album that makes me wish some priest could exorcise the memory of this bland music out of my fucking head.

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Thu Nov 11 2021
5

Good shit, 20+ minute songs are where it's at. Favorite track is Tubular Bells lol

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Wed May 12 2021
3

“Tubular Bells” by Mike Oldfield (1973) Autobiographical review: I bought this album when it came out in 1973, chiefly because of the brilliance of the single release (used as theme music for the movie “The Exorcist”), but I’m pretty sure I never listened to the whole album. I lacked the patience. This morning, I don’t know if I have the patience, but I do have the time. Almost entirely instrumental, it’s basically an experimental composition with a wide variety of keyboard and guitar sounds, woven together in a richly textured pastiche of tones. A dubbing picnic. On the plus side, this work is extraordinarily innovative (for 1973), with some very creative instrumentation, recording techniques, time signatures, and chord progressions. It’s very interesting to listen to this album and ask oneself how he’s making this or that particular sound. Definitely cool. On the minus side, there is little percussion (none on side one), and there is a complete lack of cohesion—a random mixture of moods that are missing a symphonic theme. It’s composed and arranged as if it were a high tech hobby. Some pitch problems on the backing vocals and lower end fretted string instruments. And the gimmicky voiceover naming added instruments is pedantic. When it finally gets to what one might call prog rock at 14:00 on side two, it’s substandard. Remember, we’d already heard Emerson, Lake & Palmer and early Pink Floyd. Most of the album doesn’t rise to the quality of the first four minutes. Very disappointing. So while the album is definitely good, it’s finally unsatisfying. Now on the other hand, if I were high . . . 3/5

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Sat Jan 21 2023
1

Based on this project, I’m starting to see “he played all the instruments!” as a warning sign, not a recommendation.

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Fri Aug 27 2021
5

As unique now as it was in 1973, definitely an album you must hear before you die.

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Fri Jan 15 2021
5

Amazing. I had no idea the famous instrumental piece is from this album.

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Mon Oct 04 2021
2

why the growling? it was good before the growling

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Mon Apr 19 2021
5

Stunning piece of progressive rock

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Wed Mar 17 2021
5

Another one my brother bought but I don’t know where this vinyl ended up. I remembered the music was widely known since it was in a popular movie. The wiki notes reminded me it was The Exorcist. It’s quite impressive that he was still a teenager when he wrote and played all the instruments. One thing I didn't remember is how good he was at playing guitar.He lays down some good shit The end of side 1 is priceless when the introduction of the instruments builds to a climax as we eagerly await the introduction of the tubular bells. The timing of this release could not have been better since the use of Hallucinogenics was reaching new heights. I have to call this a masterpiece.

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Tue Nov 02 2021
5

10/10, I love weird prog that was just such a cool album, I really loved it

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Sat Nov 13 2021
5

I greatly prefer the 2003 remake, possibly because it is the first version I heard and possibly because it does sound much better from a pure sound quality perspective. Anyway, this album is a milestone in my musical journey because it was one of the first ones where I would concentrate on the sounds and on the sensations they gave me more than on words (of course, they're basically not there here) or other aspects. It's still one of my go-to albums to test audio stuff and I enjoy it greatly.

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Tue Dec 14 2021
5

This is amazing, truly a masterpiece, I love the first track

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Thu Oct 19 2023
5

What a cool album. There were shades of Final Fantasy in this album. It was a cool touch to introduce all of the instruments as they were added. This feels like a world music album with the variety of instruments, including bagpipes and Spanish guitar. I'm only reviewing based on Tubular Bells pt 1 and 2. Such a pleasant album I'll likely listen to again. I thought the album was going to be very simple and repetitive due to the first few minutes. The only real downside of this album was the weird moaning in Pt. 2. Everything else was a high throughout the entirety. I enjoyed the fact that it was just 2 long songs that gave Mr. Oldfield room to draw out and experiment during songs, almost like a jam band. Would pair nicely with a day at the Renaissance Festival. This album is a sneaky 5 in my opinion. I was in between 4 and 5, but the uniqueness of the album and the fact that it elicited joy while I was deep cleaning the bathroom pushes it into 5 territory.

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Mon Nov 13 2023
5

Fun and spooky mostly instrumental progressive album that still holds up today.

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Wed Dec 02 2020
4

Is there any instrument this guy can’t play??

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Sat Feb 13 2021
4

Oh man, I was drawn into Oldfield's Tubular Bells. Both epic sides of this record really were mesmerizing and instrumentally beautiful. The growling on Side B was even acceptable :) The single that followed on Spotify was a nice bonus that connected me to my Irish/English ancestors. The other additional song, Sailor's Hornpipe, is bloody hilarious! I am grateful to have been invited to discover Mike Oldfield and look forward to checking out his catalogue. I have a feeling I'll be doing the jig!

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Thu Oct 19 2023
4

Listened Before? I'm not sure... I think so? I have no memory of the music, but the album art seems extremely familiar. I think I may have stumbled on this before, but its basically a new listen. If the album art wasn't already screaming "this is prog rock" the tracklist certainly does. One single piece split into two parts that are spread evenly across each side of a record. I find such a format sort of difficult to review. All I can say is that I understand the decision on format. While there are no words, the instrumental tells a certain story that is in constant evolution. Could easily imagine someone producing a visual accompaniment. Pretty incredible how the whole thing seamlessly transitions without ever feeling "forced." I do enjoy the goofy spoken narration of instruments around the 21 minute mark as he layers instruments over a repeating melody. I don't know why, but I was surprised when he said "Tubular Bells" and then the mixing pushed them front and center with a choral accompaniment. Well that was an enjoyable 26 minutes -- nice background music. Onto Pt II... honestly, the music itself is quite enjoyable, but what the everloving fuck are these vocals? It is as if they are channeling their inner werewolf and grumbling incoherent German(?). In a weird way it just works, but it is a curious choice just as with the narration in the first part. I'm left at the conclusion of this one a little confused. On one hand, I enjoyed it (especially the virtuouso guitar section around 17 min of pt II). On the other, I have no longing desire to go back for another journey. I think this is an incredible display of musical prowess from Oldfield, in not only playing a large number of the instrumentals, but also in arranging a coherent instrumental exploration of this nature. On a technical front I think this is very high; on enjoyment also reasonably high; but on a more nuanced, personal experience front, I'm kind of meh. So I'll be generous and say this is a 4 / 5 that I will probably never go through again. Added to Library? No Songs Added To Playlists:

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Fri Oct 20 2023
4

I didn't know anything about this but actually really liked it. It was excellent music to have on while I was working. There were some weird choices and it was produced a bit strangely (differing levels, etc) but overall I thought this was great!

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Fri Oct 20 2023
4

Une fois n'est pas coutume, je préfère le 2

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Thu Oct 26 2023
4

This thing has baselines! Good fun.

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Fri Oct 27 2023
4

Groovy groovy groovy without exception this makes you remove all your clothes, douse yourself in ice cold water, and dance in the pitch black darkness

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Sun Sep 12 2021
2

2.8 - Dollar Tree version of a Philip Glass movie soundtrack (e.g Koyaanisqatsi). Uninteresting electronics, linear arrangements, thin textures. I really didn’t get much off this.

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Wed Sep 13 2023
2

I wasn't minding this until the growling began in track 2. It was just so unpleasant and unsettling to listen to. Like cookie monster was messing around on the mic.

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Thu Oct 19 2023
2

Wow. Part 1 you've all hesrd before, - mixes thing up but them, no need to add the names of the instruments as then are added. Really impacts the flow. Pt2 much better,,, until the groans come in. Them he starts the Sailor's hornpipe early. Forget the final track. Not sure what he was aiming for. Great skills and accomplishment.

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Mon Jan 22 2024
2

never gonna listen to it again but i'm glad i did 2/5

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Thu Apr 07 2022
1

"Tubular Bells" is an hour of pretentious, self-indulgent trash. But, most damning of all, it's boring. Prog absolutely isn't my genre but even I know it should be complex, edgy, and challenging. The few times "Tubular Bells" broke away from being vanilla, it was to do something cringey. And don't get me started on that last track. Utter trash. Why's that on the album? Buggered if I know.

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Tue Mar 02 2021
5

Nostalgia é uma droga pesada

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Fri Jan 15 2021
5

Me gustó mucho es una música muy relajante

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Sun Jan 31 2021
5

Exceptional album. Grew up with this, he took music in a completely different direction when this album was made.

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Fri Jan 29 2021
5

Havnt listened to it for years, brilliant

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Mon Mar 15 2021
5

Очень концептуально

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Wed Apr 07 2021
5

Ephemeral, fantastic, all-encompassing

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Sat May 15 2021
5

This was a very nice change of pace.

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Wed Jun 30 2021
5

Classic album, never listened to it before but I get it now

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Tue Jun 08 2021
5

07/06/2021 Ricardo was here... This is definitely one of the best things I ever listened... Fun fact: Mike oldfield was only 19 when he made this masterpiece. And he played most of the instruments.

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Tue Jul 20 2021
5

It might be cheese but I still love it

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Mon Aug 16 2021
5

excellent instrumental album!

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Sat Aug 21 2021
5

What a stroke of genius, so many instruments, so many intricate melodies and harmonies, and all of it played by an 19 year old in 1973

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Sat Aug 21 2021
5

Genius. I am blown away by the talent.

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Fri Aug 27 2021
5

Banger! Insanely wide range of sounds, fun segments, everything. Love this album.

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Tue Sep 14 2021
5

To be played at loud volume.

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Wed Sep 22 2021
5

Lange nicht gehört. Sehr geil.

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Thu Sep 30 2021
5

I mean, starting off with the album's biggest contribution in the Exorcist theme, to the yelling section, this album is just damn interesting. Worth a revisit for sure.

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Thu Sep 30 2021
5

A prog classic, made especially impressive by being nearly a one man show. Just great, and right up my alley.

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Sun Dec 12 2021
5

Rock progresivo de Mike Oldfield.

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Tue Dec 14 2021
5

Wow wat een vibe. Dit was echt een ervaring!

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Mon Jan 10 2022
5

Fantastic. Musicians today truly don't strive as high as they used to, huh. So much truly magical music from the 60s/70s that makes me feel a way no music from this century ever has. Prog music has such an effect on me. This one genre contains a large chunk of the most spiritual and magical music I have ever found. Side note: I love this album, I really do. But after listening to his 2003 re-recording I can never go back to this version. I wish everyone who rated this album low would've gotten to listen to that version instead. Mike Oldfield himself felt the original version had a lot of flaws that bothered him. Mike Oldfield is fantastic. If you liked or even kind of liked this album, you HAVE to listen to Ommadawn. I like it more than Tubular Bells; it feels more ethereal and magical. People who dismiss this album as "tedious musical wankery" lack imagination and heart. This album is grand.

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Fri Mar 04 2022
5

I liked this, I was honestly not really expecting to like this but I really did. I liked the varieties and the sounds that reappeared throughout the record. I think at the first listen I liked Part 1 more than Part 2, but I appreciate how it all connects together. I ended up giving the big like to the 2003 version, as it has sections as separate tracks, and as much as I liked the thing as a whole, it's much easier to integrate it with the rest of my daily listening music as individual tracks. I ended up listening to The Sailor's Hornpipe over and over again, which occurs at the very last part of Part 2.

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Mon Mar 07 2022
5

I had no idea what to expect from this album going into it, but about 5 minutes in I knew it was going to be special. Amazing guitar tones, superb instrumentation, brilliant melodies. This is perfect. An absolute masterpiece.

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Thu Mar 24 2022
5

Really enjoyed this. It's weird but good

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Fri Apr 01 2022
5

What can you say? It's a masterpiece, I love it.

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Mon Apr 25 2022
5

What an album. I knew of Tubular Bells but had never listened to it. Since Friday I have had it on constant play. Just absolutely brilliant!!

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Fri May 20 2022
5

so the record that started Richard Bransons Billionaire Journey. Mike Oldfield was a 19 year old prodigy\Genius. This is his Magnum Opus and has some delightful compositions, who doesn't love Viv Stanshalls Majestic voice on "Introducing". Love the whole album really and absolutely rightfully on this list (Top Ten for me)

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Thu Jun 16 2022
5

Very nice, easy-listening prog. It's not perfect but just the fact that Mike Oldfield made this almost completely by himself at 19 is incredible. Also I'm a sucker for folk music which this featured a lot of.

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Sun Jun 26 2022
5

Without this, there'd be no Richard Branson ballooning. I guess that's a tolerable price.

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Fri Jul 08 2022
5

Excited to finally listen to this whole album. Kind of psychedelic, experimental rock and folk. Reminded me of when I fell in love with the London Olympic Games opening ceremony music - I miss that soundtrack/playlist.

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Fri Aug 05 2022
5

I used to listen to this album endlessly, I could name the instruments as Mike said them. I especially loved saying "mandolin" and "slightly distorted guitar" for some reason. And then the final "Tubular Bells"! Brilliant. Love it. Admittedly, I had forgotten just how weird things got in the second half of Side 2 but still, so good to listen to it again.

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Fri Aug 12 2022
5

Make no mistake, *Tubular Bells* is the tree that hides the weird and sometimes wonderful forest that Mike Oldfield planted for us in first decade of his long career, from the long suites of the seventies to his catchy pop hits sung by the pristine Maggie Reilly during the early eighties (just don't bother explore anything from later periods, it's quite pointless). But like all forests, that one can be confusing at times. True, there are treasures to dig out in each and every one of those early albums. Yet there are *also* jarring moments in them, stuff so cheesy you can't believe someone able to write and play so many sublime melodies and arrangements can also stumble and fall for such stupid-sounding ideas. But as perplexing as Oldfield's music can be, it seems like the man always spontaneously follows his instincts, and this wherever they lead him. And this is exactly what makes those early records of his endearing and one-of-a-kind, even with their many flaws. At least to me. There are two exceptions to this rule of thumb that Mike Oldfield's records are always flawed to an extent, which prove the man was able to write genuine masterpieces when rightly inspired. The second exception is *Ommadawn* (1975), and if you loved *Tubular Bells*, I advise you to check it out a.s.a.p.. But the very first exception is Oldfield's debut, obviously, from its famous introduction on grand piano and sped-up glockenspiel and farfisa organ (following an off-kilter, hypnotic rhythm pattern) to the layers of instruments piling up over a catchy bassline concluding Part One. In comparison, Part Two is both dreamier (those celtic folk interludes ; that utopian, "new age" atmosphere elsewhere) and more eccentric (that mock-hard rock thing with grunting vocals coming out of nowhere), going from one extreme to the next, exploring both burlesque and breathtaking sonic landscapes. Part 2 is indeed notoriously more "difficult" than Part 1. But as disjointed as it sounds, you could still find such contrasts in the *relatively* streamlined structure of the first part. One thing's for sure, the 180-degrees turns on this LP, from heavenly female choirs to heavy guitar riffs, will have your head spinning... Yet we're not talking about Emerson, Lake and Palmer here either. *Tubular Bells* is not merely demonstrative or performative. It has a heart, too--maybe a clunky one, in keeping with the pre-DIY manner in which it was conceptualized on tape shenanigans and other sort of try-and-error measures, but a heart nonetheless. In a way, Oldfield's magnum opus sure gives another sense to the word "ridiculous", both as a negative and a positive term. This album shouldn't work, and yet, minus very short WTF moments, it does. And even the WTF moments are actually playing a key part in all this, preventing this record to fall into all the usual pitfalls of prog-rock by using an out-of-the-box philosophy about what instrumentation should do. Case in point: the electric guitar. Oldfield had found from the get-go one of the most distinct and idiosyncratic sound in the long history of that instrument, a sound that he would refine again and again in later albums. As a result, his guitar playing in not only *dumbly* virtuositic ; it is also rich, hugely harmonic, evocative, playful, both strident and lush. Another paradox many rock fans can't quite put their fingers on. Even for some coming from the usual prog-rock ilk. To put it in a nutshell, you may love *Tubular Bells* or you may hate it, but it's hard to deny its originality and importance. This record *is* indeed an essential listen, both as an example and a *counterexample* of what made people tick during the early seventies. Such paradoxes are rare, but when they become such a popular cultural artefact, the end result becomes precious. Avant-garde has never sounded so easy on the ear... or maybe novelty pieces have never sounded so avant-garde, who knows? And all it took to accomplish that trick was a 19-year-old kid following a very personal vision--not exactly a genius, but at least a wizard when it came to sound and moods. Virgin Records founder Richard Branson can be thanked a thousand times over for giving a chance to such a young man with very few credentials going for him. Later on, Branson thought he would reach the heavens with Virgin Airlines or Virgin Galactic. But maybe the only time he *really* did so, was when he greenlighted *Tubular Bells*, all things considered... Number of albums left to review or just listen to: 833 Number of albums from the list I find relevant enough to be mandatory: 91 Albums from the list I *might* include in mine later on: 41 (including this one) Albums from the list I will certainly *not* include in mine (many others are more important): 36

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Sat Aug 13 2022
5

I enjoyed every weird spacial moment of that. Iconic.

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Tue Aug 30 2022
5

An absolute classic! So glad to see this one pop up, i love super long tracks and these are some of the best! This continues to be a classic

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Sun Sep 04 2022
5

This album opened up this genre by being just a big hit.

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Wed Sep 14 2022
5

I do love this - the voice at the end of Part 1 is great!

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Sat Oct 08 2022
5

Absolutely love this album, I owned it on vinyl.

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Fri Nov 04 2022
5

Another timeless record. Love the instrumentation on this more than most other Oldfield records

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Tue Nov 15 2022
5

Aðeins öðruvísi kaos hérna. Mike Oldfield var 19 ára þegar hann gerði þessa plötu 😮 og hún er enn þann dag í dag algjört meistaraverk. Og ég er ekki sú eina sem hefur velt því fyrir sér hvort hann sé að growla á klingonsku þarna á tímabili skv smá gúgli.

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Sat Nov 19 2022
5

Amazing album. Tubular Bells - the part everyone knows - is incredible, but for my money the crazy Pt. II is where it’s at! Love love love this album!

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Sun Jan 01 2023
5

chills....... literally chills..........

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Fri Jan 13 2023
5

What is this an indie metroid-vania rogue-like side-scrolling action platformer OST?? From me that's high praise. Really interesting music. About 4 minutes into the first track I was fully hooked. Such an interesting recording environment. Texturally and compositionally so cool; event though each of the pieces are super long no one idea overstays its welcome. Some jarring moments too, like the first entrance of the electric guitar in the first track. Really feels like a series of vignettes, or like some long overture to an epic musical. Some cool Steve Reich-esque moments too of weird rhythmic groupings and melodic sequences that build tension, then release into something wildly unexpected and driving. So much to say because I feel like this album does so much! I am so impressed by the sheer output and pace of ideas in each part. Probably one of the most interesting albums I’ve heard in the sense that I was constantly being pleasantly surprised by a new musical thing. We gotta discuss the goblin singing in Pt. II. It’s so dank!!! But I’m also really confused about it. It’s also I think the first moment we get drums in the album? So strange and cool. I was half joking with my first line but this music is super linked to video game music in my mind; the goblin spitting molten hot fire over electric guitars and a backbeat reinforces this feeling. All in all this album is amazing! Funny, interesting, explosively creative and novel while thoroughly listenable all the way through. 5 from me!

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Fri Jan 13 2023
5

I discovered this album sometime in the last year—thanks to my friend Joey!—and have since bought it on a CD that I play once every other month or so while I’m working or cooking or doing some other mindless task that I’d like soundtracked. I love this album. Not only is it ominous, but hilarious. Not only experimental, but traditional. It’s unique and mind-bogglingly successful. Wildly impressive, and impressively wild. Impressive that a 19-year-old Oldfield put this together nearly single-handedly. And wild that it has had the profound effect on our cultural unconscious that it has had. It’s got to be among the most commercially successfully 20+ minute musical pieces this side of the 19th century. I can’t believe how popular it is. And it makes me giddy with excitement just thinking about its existence. This is why I love music. It’s stories like that of Tubular Bells. A strange coming-together of commercial forces—a young, risk-taking Richard Branson—artistic forces—the manic, frustrated, and frequently drunk Oldfield and all others who had a hand in this recording up to and including Master of Ceremonies Vivian Stanshall and photographer/graphic designer, Trevor Key—and cultural forces—a who’s who of English avant-psychedelic figures of the late 1960s that batted harebrained ideas around no matter how silly, pretentious, or irreverent—to manifest what we now know and love as Tubular Bells. It’s hard to even wrap your head around how this came to be let alone why. It’s like looking up at a cloud or a smattering of stars and searching for shapes, stories, or any other sort of meaning as you bask in the sheer beauty of all its madness. And it’s mad as hell, this album. And I love, love, love it. Lastly, the impact the opening theme of this album has had on horror movies thanks to Friedkin’s inclusion of it in his The Exorcist is undeniable. You can hear echos of Tubular Bells in just about every major horror soundtrack from Halloween to Hereditary. Which has very little to do with this music itself, but lends to the album’s aura, mystique, and strange hold it continues to have over us today. For further evidence of this just see Branson’s chilling 2013 statement re: the album and the consequential success of his company: "I never thought that the word 'tubular bells' was going to play such an important part in our lives ... Virgin going into space most likely wouldn't have existed if we hadn't hired that particular instrument." So one weird teenager’s odd-ball musical vision and crazed, uncompromising pursuit of such has directly and incidentally left an indelible mark on not only the soundscape of our collected nightmares, but also mankind’s pursuit of outer space. That’s about as close as we’ve ever come to actuating the plot of Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure. So, yeah, in my opinion, pretty cool album.

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Fri Jan 13 2023
5

An absolute classic. Yet another dad album. This record has been spun many a time in the Nichols household. Definitely recommend looking into the history of how this album was recorded, it's an incredible story. I am a big fan of around halfway into part 1. The harmonized guitars, the little bleeps of the synth, the piano riff, the humming. Every time I listen to this album I pick up on some new part that speaks to me in a different way. The caveman bit is just further proof of the total insanity and creative freedom that Mike was allowed to have for this project. A truly unique album that takes listeners on a journey through a range of musical styles and sounds. Oldfield's musicianship and versatility are on full display, making for a wild and unforgettable listening experience. "Grand piano Reed and pipe organ Glockenspiel Bass guitar Double-speed guitar Two slightly distorted guitars Mandolin Spanish guitar and, introducing, acoustic guitar Plus, tubular bells!"

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Fri Jan 13 2023
5

Dangit 5 stars, no notes. Weird in the right ways, creative in the right ways, silly in the right ways. Prog rock isn't for everyone, and this is sort of a Prog Rock Ur-text. Kinda wild that he basically revolutionized prog rock AND horror movie soundtracks

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Sat Jan 14 2023
5

Sooo wide ranging and interesting

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Sat Jan 14 2023
5

Love this album, a master piece from Mike Oldfield!

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Mon Jan 16 2023
5

p299. 1973. 5 stars. Quality English musical eccentricity. I am not a fan of 70s prog-rock or pointless, meandering noodling with instruments - but this is good. What sets it well above the dross is the sheer variety of music themes and styles that Mike Oldfield manages to blend together, and none of them outstay their welcome before moving on the next one. Half a point deducted for the caveman grunts on side 2, but a bonus half a point for Vivian Stanshall.

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Thu Jan 26 2023
5

I love this because I love it

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Wed Feb 01 2023
5

Rock progresivo de Mike Oldfield. Vinilo.

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Wed Feb 08 2023
5

Interesting instrumentals, huge mood changes, and with an orchestral feel. All without a big mention of a drummer. Definitely a new age album. Feels almost timeless.

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Fri Feb 10 2023
5

Unbelievable for what it is and when it was made.

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Wed Mar 01 2023
5

When I saw that I had been generated Tubular Bells, I’ll admit I did get quite excited. This is an album where I’ve always thought that id have to get round to listening to it at some point, but just never have. I love the other Mike Oldfield songs I’ve heard (In Dulce Jubilo is one of the best Christmas songs ever written). Songs I already knew: Tubular Bells Pt. I (but just the opening minute or so) Favourites: Tubular Bells Pt. I, Tubular Bells Pt. II This album was quite phenomenal. There are parts where you can close your eyes and be in a horror film, a Spanish romance, or even in a high fantasy world. Tubular Bells Pt II even features some vocal from an actual orc around halfway through, or maybe it’s the demon from The Exorcist. When the actual tubular bells play towards the end of the opening track, I was covered in so many goosebumps that I wouldn’t be surprised if they were even on my eyeballs. This was incredible from front to back, and I’m very glad to have finally heard it.

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Fri Mar 17 2023
5

Kjempeopplevelse! Hørte plate 2-3 ganger første dag

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